Winifred Johnson
University of North Carolina Wilmington, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
The ocean holds a large, constantly changing pool of carbon, and its fate affects the atmosphere and Earth's climate. Each year marine microbes break down about half of all carbon fixed by ocean plankton.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Microbiology & Immunology
Chemistry
- Topics
osmolytes
marine microorganisms
ocean carbon cycle
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Identify which marine microbial groups produce which osmolytes under nitrogen stress by pairing osmolyte measurements with transcriptomics in laboratory cultures.
- Measure how quickly marine microbes take up different osmolytes and trace what happens to each within their metabolism.
- Quantify osmolyte amounts, uptake rates and metabolic fate across a Mid-Atlantic coastal-to-open-ocean nitrogen gradient, using mass spectrometry linked to community gene activity measured by metatranscriptomics.
More about the research
Part of that flow likely passes through osmolytes. These are small organic molecules that cells pile up to high concentrations to balance water pressure with their surroundings. Osmolytes are easy food for microbes and also supply nitrogen and sulfur. Many have never been measured in the ocean, so their share of the carbon cycle is unknown. Microbes may also change how they make and store these molecules as temperature and nutrient supply change.
Why it matters
Better accounting of how microbes produce and consume osmolytes will help pin down one uncertain part of the ocean carbon cycle, along with links to nitrogen and sulfur cycling. These measurements could improve predictions of how ocean carbon cycling, and its effect on climate, will shift as temperatures and nutrient supply change.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Erin McParland
Oregon State University, OR·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify about 150 small polar extracellular metabolites in seawater across four regimes that differ in biological productivity and oxygen, using new metabolomics methods.
Oscar Sosa
University of Puget Sound, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether methane made from methylamine and methane made from methylphosphonate in high-molecular-weight dissolved organic matter carry distinct stable carbon isotope signatures.
Henry Williams
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, FL·Microbiology & Immunology
Measure how rising temperature, ocean acidification and nutrient enrichment change the abundance and predation rates of Bdellovibrio-like bacteria and other micropredators, using time-series experiments sampled every 3–6 hours.
The school
University of North Carolina Wilmington: 2 labs on PI Pages, $23M a year on research, 35 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.